The prevention of initial loss of weight in the newborn by the use of a hydrating solution

Abstract

Summary Seventy-five newborn infants received the solution suggested by Kugelmass at intervals of two hours, day and night, immediately following birth. Thirty-four received it for the first two days, twenty-six for the first three days, nine for the first day, and six for the first four days. Seventy-five newborn infants were simultaneously placed on complemented breast feedings. The seventy-five infants who received the solution, irrespective of the number of days they received it, had an average initial loss of weight amounting to 3.94 per cent of the combined average birth weights, compared to a 5.08 per cent loss in the seventy-five controls, making a decrease of the average reduction in the initial loss of weight of the former over the latter of 1.14 per cent. The thirty-four infants who received the solution for the first two days had an average initial loss of weight of 3.68 per cent of the average birth weight, or a reduction in initial loss of weight amounting to 1.4 per cent over the control group. A reduction of 1.79 per cent was obtained in the group of nine infants who were fed the solution for the first day only; the reduction amounted to only 0.76 per cent and 0.48 per cent in the twenty-six and six infants who received the solution the first three and first four days, respectively. Three of the seventy-five infants treated showed no initial loss of weight as compared with one of the seventy-five controls. Birth weight was regained in 6 per cent more of the treated infants and in 18 per cent more of the infants in the group receiving the solution for the first two days than in the control group. Birth weight was recovered on an average of 5.6 days of life, or 1.3 days earlier in the seventy-five treated infants than in the controls. Of the thirty-four infants fed the solution the first two days, birth weight was recovered on an average of 5.4 days of life, or 1.5 days earlier than in control group. An average fluid intake of 11 per cent of the average birth weight and a caloric intake averaging 161 cal. per day was attained on the second day of life, or approximately the amounts taken by the average control patient, on the fifth day of life. Even when the solution was fed the infants for the first day only, their fluid and caloric intake for that day exceeded those of the controls reported by Kugelmass for a similar or longer number of days. When the weights of the seventy-five treated infants at the end of nine days of observation are compared with the controls, a gain over their birth weight in 5 per cent more is found. Since the thirty-four infants who received the solution for the first two days constitute almost half of the treated series, it is significant that 10 per cent more of them showed a gain than the control patients. The average gain was 5.7 ounces, an average of 1.8 ounces more than the controls, 2.3 ounces more than the infants who received the solution for three days, and more than any other group in the treated series.